A Clockwork Orange

Clockwork Orange - 1971 | 137 mins | Drama, Fiction | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Asst Director: Derek Cracknell and Dusty Symonds.
Producer: Stanley Kubrick.
Associate Producer: Bernard Williams.
Executive Producer: Max Raab and Si Litvinoff.
Script: Stanley Kubrick. (from the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess)
Cinematography: John Alcott.
Art Direction: Russell Hagg and Peter Shields.
Editing: Peter Taylor.
Asst Editor: Brian Blamey and Peter Burgess.
Production Design: John Barry.
Costume Design: Milena Canonero.
Makeup: Barbara Daly, George Partleton and Frederick Williamson.
Stunts: Roy Scammell.
Sound: John Jordan.
Music Score: Walter Carlos.
Additional Music: Edward Elgar, Henry Purcell, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Gioacchino Rossini and Ludwig Van Beethoven.

The Cast

Malcolm McDowell - Alex DeLarge
Patrick Magee - Frank Alexander
Warren - Clarke Dim
Michael Bates - Chief Guard Barnes
Steven Berkoff - Constable
Adrienne Corri - Mrs. Alexander
James Marcus Georgie
Carl Duering -Dr. Brodsky
John Clive - Stage Actor
Aubrey Morris - P.R. Deltoid

Plot Synopsis

A Clockwork Orange is a powerful satire on on contemporary society, a society where gang violence is the norm. A disturbing story based on Anthony Burgess's experimental novel. I t is set in an almost hallucinatory world made even more so by the bizarre set designs and avant-garde cinematography, the story centres on a group of working-class teenage punks ("droogs") who spend their evenings participating in "ultraviolent" activities that include rape, physical assault and murder. Alex (Malcolm McDowell) leads a gang of street teens in nights of ultra-violence. He angers his droogs one time too many, causing them to turn on him and set him up for capture by the police. Alex is eventually captured and sentenced to prison, while in prison Alex gets the opportunity to an early parole by taking part in an experimental anti-crime program aimed at turning offenders in total pacifists. The program is drug and psycho-therapy designed to turn the feelings that lead to crime against the person. In other words, any time Alex feels the desire to do violence he gets physically sick.

Though the treatment works it proves disastrous for Alex, upon his release he is assaulted and seeks shelter, unfortunately for Alex he is rescued by one of his previous victims seeking revenge. While locked in an upstairs room Alex hears the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven; the same music used during his 'treatment', there is only one route of escape left for Alex which is to jump through the bedroom window. Alex survives, though he ends up in hospital complete with various broken bones; not to mention an interested media and kind politician.